Despite recent efforts by the Veterans Administration to prevent veteran suicide, seven have committed suicide in the Inland Northwest in the last four months and US Senator Patty Murray is calling the situation unacceptable. -4 News Now (May 1, 2008)
Spc. Timothy Juneman, Washington Army National Guard (Screenshot from DVIDS)
“The identity of one other veteran who killed himself this year became public when his family wrote U.S. Sen. Patty Murray in April about concerns with VA mental health care. Spc. Timothy Juneman, 25, a National Guardsman and former [Fort Lewis] Stryker Brigade soldier who was injured in a roadside explosion in Iraq, died March 5, 2008…Juneman’s body was found in his Pullman home March 25, nearly three weeks after he had hanged himself. He had missed several appointments at the Spokane VA. In records obtained by Juneman before his death, Brown wrote that imminent redeployment to Iraq with the National Guard was a ‘major stressor’ contributing to Juneman’s condition, his mother said.” Read more from The Spokesmanhere.
In the News:
CBS News first reported on the staggering number of veteran suicides in a report last year. Now, newly-released data shows that vets who get help from the VA are still at risk. -CBS News (March 20, 2008)
They served their country honorably but after risking their life in combat abroad, coping with coming home was too much. In the last three months seven servicemen being treated by Spokane’s VA Hospital have committed suicide. -4 News Now (April 29, 2008)
Despite recent efforts by the Veterans Administration to prevent veteran suicide, seven have committed suicide in the Inland Northwest in the last four months and US Senator Patty Murray is calling the situation unacceptable. -4 News Now (May 1, 2008)
Cpl. Ciara Durkin, Massachusetts Army National Guard
Army Cpl. Ciara Durkin, 30, died from a non combat related incident in Bagram Airfield, Afghanistan on September 28, 2007. Cpl. Durkin was supporting Operation Enduring Freedom on behalf of the 726th Finance Battalion, Massachusetts Army National Guard in West Newton, Massachusetts. According to the Department of Defense, the circumstances surrounding the incident were under investigation at the time of the press release. Ciara was found dead near a chapel on a secure base with a gunshot wound to the head about an hour and a half after leaving work on a Friday. The cause of death was ruled a suicide by Army investigators. According to media reports, the family believes Ciara’s death is suspicious because she shared in an e-mail that in her Finance role, she uncovered some things she didn’t like and feared she made some enemies. She asked her family to investigate if anything were to happen to her while she was serving. Ciara’s brother indicated that Ciara had left a happy birthday message for him on the day that she died. He said she sounded heartbreakingly upbeat.
The family announced they were going to commission an independent autopsy and were demanding answers from the military with the assistance of then Senator John Kerry (D-MA). They told CBS News that initially they had been told that she was killed in action then later the manner of death was changed to non combat related injuries. After the e-mails, warnings, and other observations, the family rightfully feared Ciara had been murdered. They were not sure what the motive was but they speculated that it could be because of what she uncovered in the Finance office and/or a hate crime. The family feared that Ciara’s sexual orientation played a role in her death as well. In media reports, the family expressed that their grief is made more torturous by the limited information released by the Army, and rumors. They shared that misinformation following the deaths or injuries of service members does not help them with remembrances of their loved one during a time of grief. Like most families who have lost a loved one, they want to know what happened and they want to know the truth.
Most frustrating to the family, the Army is offering very little information and no explanations…Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., who has been helping the family, says it’s not enough and he and is demanding answers. In a letter to Defense Secretary Robert Gates, Kerry asked why the family had not been given autopsy results and why the Army hadn’t answered the family’s request for an independent autopsy. –ABC News (October 4, 2007)
Family, City, State Honor Slain Soldier From Quincy:
Army Captain (Dr.) Roselle Hoffmaster, 32, died of injuries sustained from a non-combat related incident on September 20, 2007 in Kirkuk, Iraq. Captain Hoffmaster was supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom on behalf of the Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division in Fort Drum, New York. At the time of the Department of Defense press release, the circumstances surrounding her death were under investigation. Media reports indicate the Army ruled Captain Hoffmaster’s death a suicide by self-inflicted gunshot wound but her family questions the cause of death ruling.
“Hoffmaster’s parents, whose names were also redacted, said their daughter had a learning disability that made it difficult for her to do mechanical tasks, despite her high IQ. They and other family members said she gave no hint of being anxious or depressed and that they did not believe she would take her own life…A civilian doctor who had treated Hoffmaster for depression in the U.S. told investigators that she seemed happy in her marriage and her life and never indicated that she had contemplated suicide.” –MassLive.com (January 21, 2009)
Benjamin Griego, 26, was found dead in Army housing at White Sands Missile Range on July 13, 2007. He was serving our country as Cadre, on his second term enlistment, representing the New Mexico Army National Guard. His duty involved training military branches of service for transition to a Warrior Transition course previously transferred to Dona Ana Range from Ft. Knox, Kentucky. Our 26 year old son, Sgt. Benjamin Thomas Griego, was found dead in Army housing at White Sands Missile Range on July 13, 2007. He was serving our country as Cadre, on his second term enlistment, representing the New Mexico Army National Guard. His duty involved training military branches of service for transition to a Warrior Transition course previously transferred to Dona Ana Range from Ft. Knox, Kentucky.
When we first heard of our sons death, there was no official report released from the Army National Guard to his wife or to us, his parents. The information we received early that morning on July 13th, was that our son had died. The information was received from the public through their phone calls and visits of sympathy and condolences.
As we tried to make sense of this, we brushed it off as gossip since the rumor had come from a Wal-Mart employee. Later, we learned that it had been channeled down from a sergeant on post at White Sands Missile Range to a family member employed at the local Wal-Mart in Clovis, NM. That in itself was devastating and shocking to find this out in this manner. We were on the phone early that morning frantically trying to make contact with someone from the White Sands Missile Range and the Army National Guard in Santa Fe, NM who would put these rumors to rest. But to my disbelief, we were notified hours later that the worst had turned out to be true, our beloved son was gone.
Jeronimo, Bens father, was the last person to speak to Ben just hours before his death. He had made his father promise that he would call him while he was on the range the next day. We had made plans with Ben to pick up his father at the airport in El Paso, TX Monday, July 16th after duty. His itemized phone statement showed two phone calls were made to housing on base that evening. We believe that he was trying to make accommodations for his fathers visit.
Ben was 26 years old, and the youngest of my three sons. He kept close contact with us. We spoke to him every day, we knew our son, and nothing was out of the ordinary the day prior. Everything was going well for him, except for altercations he had been having with three unit members who had recently returned from Iraq. A DVD was given to us by his commander on the night of the Rosary, July 19th , which clearly demonstrates that problems existed.
My son presented a formal class on Integrity, ordered by the commander. The commander, first sergeant, and unit members were present. The class was recorded on a DVD. Some of the unit members admitted to “bum rushing” Ben before he presented the class. On the same DVD, a death threat was made. This was three weeks prior to his death. The unit members admitted to bum rushing him and the commanding officer, the highest commanding officer present, asked if it was round two”. She was well aware what was going on.
He told his mother he had been attacked by members in his unit three times in the weeks before his death, and he had a black eye the day before he died, the paper reported. He was frustrated, tired of the assaults and was resisting the urge to fight back, his father Jeronimo Griego told the News Journal. “We want them to clear his name. He did not commit suicide, we know that. We want to clear his name. Not only is that important to his name and to us, it’s important to his daughter,” Judy Griego told the News Journal. “We don’t want her growing up thinking that he did this to himself.”  –ABQ Journal (December 24, 2007)
In the News:
Our 26 year old son, Sgt. Benjamin Thomas Griego, was found dead in Army housing at White Sands Missile Range on July 13, 2007. He was serving our country as Cadre, on his second term enlistment, representing the New Mexico Army National Guard. –YouTube
Pfc. Tina Priest of Smithville died in Iraq on March 1, 2006 and her family is worried that the Army botched its care for her after a rape claim that was followed by her apparent suicide.
Investigations did not find sufficient evidence to continue the rape inquiry, but the family, skeptical of what it sees as holes in the Army’s information, is waiting for a final review by the U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Command.
Family members also say Army officials told them that the investigation was concluded in September, but their requests for the final report are being denied. A recent article in the Hartford Courant newspaper citing that final report has heightened the Priests’ anger.
“I need some closure,” said Joy Priest, Tina Priest’s mother. “I want to know. Why can a newspaper get a copy of that report and we can’t?”
An investigation conducted in Iraq by Fort Hood’s 4th Infantry Division, in which Priest served, was conducted after her death, and its findings — which the family was given — are an accurate portrayal of events, said Lt. Col. Steve Stover, a spokesman for the division. He said the Criminal Investigation Command report will be the last one issued, “and we do still owe that to the family.”
MA1 Jennifer Valdivia, 27, US Navy, died in a non combat related incident in Bahrain on January 16, 2007. MA1 Valdivia was supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom on behalf of the naval security force for Naval Support Activity in Bahrain. At the time of the press release the Department of Defense announced that her death was under investigation and Bahrain was located within the designated hostile fire zone. Naval Criminal Investigation Services (NCIS) eventually ruled her death suicide by carbon monoxide poisoning.
Toussaint, who led the Bahrain unit until March 2006, was at the center of a 2007 command investigation that documented more than 90 instances of abuse, including sailors being ordered to simulate homosexual sex in training videos, hogtied to chairs and force-fed dog treats. “If my daughter didn’t do what he told her to do, he would embarrass her in front of everybody in the kennel, belittle her,” Young said. “Everybody who was friends with Jennifer tells me the same story: She was the fall person. She was the scapegoat.” ~Pilot Online
Jennifer was at the center of command directed investigation of abuse of prisoners in Bahrain. It was reported that she did not want to participate in war crimes yet was belittled, harassed, and abused by a supervisor if she didn’t do what he told her to do. If she had a way out, could this suicide have been prevented? Was it a suicide? Was it ever investigated as a homicide? Who found her? Was it reported to the Commander first? Did the Commander do an initial investigation? Does the Navy have NCIS located in Bahrain? How quickly did NCIS respond to the scene located in what is described as a designated hostile fire zone?
Army Major Gloria Davis, 47, died in a non combat related incident in Baghdad, Iraq on December 12, 2006. Major Davis was supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom on behalf of the Defense Security Assistance Agency in Washington, D.C. At the time of the press release, the Department of Defense announced the incident was under investigation. Reports later indicate Major Davis committed suicide hours after she provided names and testimony to the Army Criminal Investigation Division (CID) investigators in Iraq. Logistics soldiers were being accused of involvement in a bribery scheme in Kuwait and she was a witness to the crimes and would have been a witness for the prosecution in the Cockerham Case. She was one of three people in the same logistics group in Kuwait tied to the bribery scheme investigation that committed suicide. Both Denise Lannaman, Army (2006) and Lt. Col. Marshall Gutierrez, Army (2006) deaths were also ruled suicides by the Army. Did they commit suicide? Was homicide ever considered? How could this have been prevented? Were any of these cases investigated as homicides? Did anyone question why three soldiers tied to one bribery investigation killed themselves?
Col. Kevin Davis, 52 years old, is the highest-ranking officer to be implicated in a scheme known among federal investigators as the Cockerham Case, for Major John Cockerham, who pleaded guilty last year to receiving more than $9 million in illegal payments for defense contracts, primarily to service the Camp Arifjan military base in Kuwait. Early in the probe, Major Gloria Dean Davis, came under suspicion by investigators in the case. She committed suicide in Baghdad in December 2006, hours after confirming she received more than $225,000 from the same contractor Col. Davis later joined as a civilian, LDI. The two officers weren’t related, however investigators familiar with the case say they were involved romantically. ~Wall Street Journal
Sgt. Denise Lannaman, New York Army National Guard
Army National Guard Sgt. Denise Lannaman, 46, died in a non combat related incident at Camp Arifjan, Kuwait on October 1, 2006. Sgt. Lannaman was supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom on behalf of the New York Army National Guard’s 1569th Transportation Company in Newburgh, New York. Reports indicate that Lannaman was found dead in a jeep with a gunshot wound. At the time of the press release, the Department of Defense announced that the incident was under investigation. Sgt. Lannaman’s death was ruled a suicide by the Army. She was one of three people in the same logistics group in Kuwait tied to a bribery scheme investigation that allegedly died by suicide. Major Gloria Davis, Army (2006) and Lt. Col. Marshall Gutierrez, Army (2006) deaths were also ruled suicides by the Army.
In the space of three months last year (2006), three members of the U.S. Army who had been part of a logistics group in Kuwait committed suicide. Two of them — a colonel and a major — had power over contract awards and had been accused of taking bribes just before they killed themselves. The third was Sgt. Denise A. Lannaman of Queens. ~New York Times
Army Lt. Col. Marshall Gutierrez died of non combat related injuries in Camp Virginia, Kuwait on September 4, 2006. Lt. Col. Gutierrez was supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom on behalf of the Area Support Group in Arijan, Kuwait. At the time of the Department of Defense press release, the incident was under investigation. The Army ruled Lt. Col. Gutierrez’ death a suicide by prescription pills and anti-freeze. Lt. Col. Gutierrez was initially a whistleblower in a wide spread bribery scheme in Kuwait but after he reported the illegal activity, he soon found himself accused of bribery by a Kuwaiti contractor. Reports indicate the allegations left his military career and his marriage in ruins. Three soldiers connected to the bribery scheme investigations allegedly committed suicide. Major Gloria Davis was a witness for the prosecution and was found dead of a gunshot wound in Iraq. Sgt. Denise Lannaman was also involved in the investigation and she was found dead of a gunshot wound in her jeep on post at Camp Arijan, Kuwait.
